President tells of days spent living with nuns in Ennis

PRESIDENT MARY McAleese each year spends a number of days in prayer with an enclosed religious order in Ennis, she revealed yesterday.

As she launched the Poor Clares' Golden Jubilee Celebrations in the town she reflected on the time she has spent with the nuns since becoming President in 1997.

In the monastery Mrs McAleese wished "a very happy birthday to all the Poor Clares for 50 wonderful years and I particularly thank you for 11 of those years".

She told the nuns: "You are great custodians of the traditions of Clare. . . I know from my time here that any time the phone rings, any time the bell goes - people come to ask you to go.

"You can't take the burden of sorrow from them and people do come in great sorrow, but you can go in a journey of light with them and that matters so much; the courage, the faith, the hope that your prayers give them. That little bit of energy to keep them focused for tomorrow - that is so important to bring the joy of Clare and the joy of Christ into their lives."

The Poor Clares established their enclosed monastery in Ennis in 1958 and today number 17 nuns. They dedicate their lives to God through the vows of enclosure, chastity, obedience and poverty.

The abbess, Sr Barnardine, said the President "is a close personal friend of ours and she comes to us every year. . . and we find her an inspiration and also a challenge to us.

"It is like welcoming a friend in here today, so it was very fitting that we would mark this special occasion, the start of our celebrations, with the President's visit."

A signed photograph of President McAleese hangs on the wall of the main corridor: "Much love to my dearest sisters, Mary."

In the visitors' book yesterday she wrote: "Congratulations on 50 years of prayful loving care of so many people whose sorrows you shared, whose joy you enchanced. God bless this lovely community".

Sr Barnardine said the President came to Ennis in 1997 to open a library "and it was a mutual friend of ours, local solicitor Michael Houlihan, who introduced her to us".

"It was while she was here having a cup of tea that she said that she would like to come back to us and this is where she would like to come for a retreat. Every year she comes here and her husband, Martin, jokes that it is a break for him and he can go off to play golf."

Sr Barnardine said the President normally stays around three days. "It is the only place she will come where her security won't stay with her all the time. Because we're enclosed . . . so it is perfectly safe."

Earlier the President and her husband joined the Poor Clares and local friars in a festive midday prayer in the monastery chapel where she read from the book of the prophet Hosea.